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Loading up the HTC One X with your multimedia as as easy as you like. You can use HTC's Sync Manager software or simply drag and drop your files onto it. There are also options for USB tethering (using your phone's internet connection to connect your computer to the world) and Internet Pass-Through, which lets your phone piggyback off your computer's connection to access the internet.

Once loaded with files, the default music player and picture viewer able to handle most files you can expect to load onto such a device, while you can use any manner of third-party video app to play just about any video file you wish – the default one doesn't play many formats. Video playback is flawless with the phone able to handle even the highest bit rate videos that some dedicated media players can't handle. It of course looks great on the screen too.

The Music app brings together your local music and other music services in one easy interface

As for the Beats Audio branding, it refers to an inbuilt audio processing option – an EQ setting essentially. Turn it on and audio and music generally does come to life that bit more but we're still suspicious of quite what HTC is doing here, as the default mode sounds blinkin' awful. We're going to have a bit more of a play to see if we can find out exactly what's going on. The Music app itself, though, is great with it integrating other music services into the one interface.

To get help get content onto your phone there's access to Google Video where you can rent movies for around £3.49 a time. There's also HTC Watch, which similarly allows for movie downloads. Between them there's a decent selection, and HTC Watch is even offering a host of 5p rentals at the moment, including Super 8, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and Friends With Benefits.

Other HTC additions include a hook up with 7Digital for music downloads, TuneIn Radio to accompany the built in FM radio and most importantly a partnership with DropBox. This gives you 25GB of storage for free for two years, which is considerably more than the 2GB you normally get for free. The service is also integrated into the software, so it will automatically upload your photos, for instance, and you can access your dropbox photos through the Android Gallery app. It's a brilliant value add, even if we do prefer Sugar Sync.

On the battery life front, we didn't have the issues reported by some publications. Yes, it drains in less than a day if you're using it really intensively but in our average usage pattern it easily lasted through the day.

Verdict

The HTC One X is a superb Android smartphone that packs in just about every key feature you can think off. The HD screen is the best we've ever seen, its quad core processor is mighty fast, its camera mostly impressive and its design is reasonably smart. However, a few ergonomics and design issues just take the edge off enough to leave us a tiny bit disappointed. It is rather large, too. Nonetheless, it's currently one of the best smartphones, if not the best on the market.